More WITCH Adv 2 The Empress of the World
by donki-shouben
Summary: Having defeated the Queen, the girls celebrate at a new restaurant! But there’s a fly in their ointment, er, soup. The Empress Bug from WITCH Adventures The Cruel Empress is back! It's a fight the Guardians can't win! But what's going on with Will?


More W.I.T.C.H. Adventures 2: The Empress Of The World

by Shawn Q. Evans

W.I.T.C.H. and related characters copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.

_Featuring the Empress from W.I.T.C.H. Adventures The Cruel Empress, available on Amazon_

(This story occurs directly after The Queen Of Infinity)

(This story has been improved from the original posted version)

_Previously: In More W.I.T.C.H. Adventures 1: The Queen Of Infinity, the Guardians fought the sorceress known only as the Queen, who had taken over Candracar after escaping her prison cell. The Guardians did manage to defeat the Queen, but it was a very near thing, as she displayed far greater powers then before. Also, the Queen had help. But whose help? And for what reason?_

Candracar, in the center of Infinity.

As the Oracle cleans up the mess left behind by the Guardians' battle with the Queen, his most trusted aide and advisor approaches.

"What news have you, Tibor?" asked the Oracle.

"The investigation is finished, Oracle." answered Tibor. "We believe we know how the Queen escaped."

"Good news, then!" said the Oracle. "I shall summon the Guardian of the Heart and inform her."

The Oracle notices a pained expression fleetingly occupy his friends' face as he mentions the Guardian.

"Is there more, Tibor?"

"I...you are not using the mop correctly, Oracle!" stammered Tibor as he grasped the handle of the Oracle's mop. "You are merely pushing the water around. You must gather it like so!"

"Tibor", asked the gentle but firm Oracle of his friend, who is now clumsily attempting to mop the floor. "You did not come here to comment on my mopping technique. What troubles you?"

"Luba..." replied Tibor, speaking of she who is entrusted with the care of the source of the Guardians' power, "she says she has noticed an oddity about the Aurameres after their misadventure with the Queen, who separated them, and which were then were forcibly reunited by the Guardians."

"And what is the nature of this...oddity?" asked the Oracle.

"She, ah..." began Tibor, who stops mopping long enough to look into his friend's eye before turning away again, "she believes it to be a sign of the prophecy!"

"I see." replied the calm, collected Oracle to his nervous, sweating, friend.

"Will...will you tell the Guardians, Oracle?" queried Tibor.

"There is no reason to do so at this time." answered the Oracle.

"But..."

"I shall handle it in my own way. That will be all, Tibor." said the Oracle, as he waved his friend off and resumed mopping.

Heatherfield, at the Bum Steer restaurant.

Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin gather for a celebratory dinner.

"Isn't it nice to take a break from everything?" said Taranee.

"Yeah, especially after all that happened with Nerissa, and then the Queen! We deserve it!" snapped Irma.

"And it's great to eat at a restaurant without working in it!" chirped Hay Lin. "Especially one whose menu says they only serve the happiest beef on Earth!"

"Ah, I think that's supposed to be an ironic joke, Hay Hay!" pointed out Taranee.

"Oh." said the slightly chagrined Hay Lin.

"But did it have to be a steakhouse?" whined Cornelia "I am a vegetarian!"

"Lighten up, Corny!" cracked Irma. "Every place has salads! Besides, it wouldn't hurt to put some meat on those bones!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" retorted Cornelia.

"Guys, come on, cut it out! We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves!" implored the perpetually cheerful Hay Lin. "Hey...where's Will?"

"She said she got called away at the last minute. To Candracar. But she'll be here" replied Taranee.

"If it was an emergency, they would have called all of us!" piped in Irma. "It must be about the Queen! I bet they finally got her to talk!"

"Irma! They don't do things like that on Candracar!" said Hay Lin.

"You know what I mean!" said a sheepish Irma. "What can I say, I am a cop's daughter!"

"If you're done with crime stories, can you please pass the rolls?" interjected Cornelia.

"Huh?" replied Irma. "You can pass it yourself!" said Irma, referring to Cornelia's telekinesis.

"Not in public!" retorted Cornelia.

"Oh, okay! Here!" said Irma, passing the plate of bread rolls. "Yo, Hay Lin! Is it true that food service workers are good tippers because they know what it's like to work in a restaurant?"

"Um, sure, Irma. I think." answered Hay Lin, who regularly worked in her parent's restaurant, the Silver Dragon.

"Good!" replied Irma. "Because I'm a little short! Can you cover me?"

Cornelia shakes her head. Hay Lin at first reacts with a look of surprise, then smiles.

"You know, guys", said Taranee, returning the conversation to more important matters between sips of soup, "I bet the Queen planned all that from the beginning! She probably wanted to be taken to Candracar. It always seemed like we defeated her too easily the first time!"

"You mean when we healed the Heart and passed through the portal?" replied Cornelia. "But she was powerless! She couldn't hide the kind of power she displayed to us!"

"No, but she was a magical expert on combining things!" answered Taranee, referring to the fact the Queen built her first powerbase by combining fire and water. "She must have been biding her time, learning what she could, then waiting for the right moment to strike! I spoke to the Candracar guards before we left. They said she was going on about the combinations of ice cream right before things went all blooey!"

"Ice cream?" chuckled Irma "Then it's good she didn't learn about the all the combinations of pizza, or we'd have been in real trouble!"

They all laugh at this.

"Enough shop talk!" exclaimed Cornelia. "Let's talk about fun things! Like boys!"

"More about you and Caleb?" wondered a depressed Irma. "Joy!"

"We don't have to talk about me!" volunteered Cornelia. "How's about we discuss that male waiter who's been giving Hay Lin the eye?"

"Y-you noticed that?" said Hay Lin, spitting out her soup.

"Hard to miss." said Cornelia.

"_Wait'll I tell Eric! _"sang Irma.

"You better not!" yelped Hay Lin. "Besides, it's not like that! Although he is kind of cute."

"Hey, is that a fly in my soup?" asked Irma, of no one in particular.

"Ewww!" hissed Cornelia. "Are you trying to gross us out?"

"No, I just thought…Nah, can't be! Flies float! Too bad, because then I could have gotten the meal for free! And Hay Lin would have had an excuse to talk to that waiter!" added Irma.

"Will you stop that!" said Hay Lin, blushing.

Just then, Will arrives.

"Hey, guys! What's going on?" asked Will, innocently.

"We were just discussing boys." answered Cornelia with a smirk.

"Ulp!" said Hay Lin.

"Yeah!" interjected Irma. "Cornelia was just saying how hot Matt looked as Shagon! That bare chest thing was sooo sexy!"

"What??" said both Will and Cornelia, as Hay Lin breathed a sigh of relief.

"I did not say that, Irma Lair!" replied a peeved Cornelia.

"No, but you were thinking it!" countered the too-smug-for-her-own-good Guardian of Water.

"I was not!" hotly denied the Earth Guardian.

"Okay, okay, I thought it all! Satisfied?" offered Irma. "But Andrew Hornby still gets my vote for hottie of the year!"

"Will, what did the Oracle say?" queried Taranee.

"But now that I think about it..." muttered Cornelia under her breath, thinking no one else can hear her.

"Ummm", Will stammered, "Apparently, we have other things to talk about. Like how you view my boyfriend. Besides, I don't want to ruin your meal!"

"That bad, huh?" offered Taranee.

"I wouldn't say bad!" replied Will. "Just distasteful. It can wait."

"So how is His Baldness? Still ticked off we trashed his crib?" joked Irma.

"Actually, the Oracle said he finds physical labor exhilarating after centuries of quiet meditation." answered Will. "When I got there, he was mopping the place up! Although he did say the flaming rocks were a bit much!"

At this, Cornelia and Taranee look away, innocently.

"So he likes physical labor?" questioned Irma. "Does he wallpaper? Because we're thinking of changing our wallpaper, and..."

"Irma!" scolded Cornelia. "Quit making jokes about the Oracle!"

"Who's joking?" stated Irma. "We really do need help with the wallpaper! Have you ever tried that? It's hard!"

"Taranee", jumped in Hay Lin, changing the subject, "Tell Will your theory about the Queen!"

"More shoptalk!" stated Cornelia, more to herself than anyone else. "Well, it could be worse!"

"Okay, Hay!" replied Taranee. "It's like this, Will! I think the Queen played us from day one!"

"How so?" asked Will.

"That Stroma place was like a prison!" continued Taranee. "She wanted out - bad! She probably had contingency plans prepared, but had to adapt her plans when she was imprisoned on Candracar. Then she only had to choose her moment."

"And get help!" added Irma.

"So...we close?" questioned Taranee.

"Could be." answered Will.

Taranee's intellect always impressed Will. They relied so much on her knowledge and smarts. It was like a combination of book smarts and street smarts. She always seemed to know how to get right to the heart of the problem. When Nerissa came back for a rematch, wasn't it Taranee's idea to use an activated Star of Threbe, disguised as the Heart of Candracar, to give to that hateful hag? Which then jumped into the Heart of Meridian to find Elyon, then took all of Nerissa's powers away so Elyon could be reunited with us? Sheer genius! (Although it wasn't as easy as it sounds! Heck, we almost failed big-time when we tried it! Still, it was a brilliant plan!) But Will couldn't tell Taranee and the others what the Oracle told her. That the Queen was somehow allied with the Empress Bug, and the Empress was gone! The thought of millions of angry bugs on the loose would be enough to make anyone sick! It was making Will nauseous just thinking about it!

"We can talk about that later, though. Let's order, now that we're all here." replied Will, deflecting attention off of her.

Ever since Nerissa, there had been an unspoken tension between Will and the other Guardians, but it had rarely surfaced as much as it had lately. And if Will didn't want to talk about something, the others usually followed her lead, and ate or watched TV in silence.

When they ordered, Will noticed their server seemed to be staring at them, but especially Hay Lin. She figured he may remember them from somewhere, and put it out of her mind.

After they ordered their meal, it was Irma who broke the ice. As usual.

"Hey, you know what?" uttered the irrepressible Guardian. "Me and Hay Lin used to be Team Ice, but after that last adventure we're going to be Team Lightning!"

"What?" said a puzzled Cornelia.

"Yeah!" said bubbly Irma. "Because together we can make lightning! What about you guys?"

"What about us?" asked the befuddled Corny.

"What team were you and Taranee?"

"Oh, uh, we were Team Lava!" answered Taranee.

"Lava, huh? That's cool!" said Irma. "That's better than my suggestion - Shake n' Bake!"

"Huh?" replied Cornelia.

"Because when you move earth, it's like an earthquake? And that's like shaking?" pointed out Irma.

"Whatever! You know, Taranee even said she was going to get red hair to be Lavagirl!" joked Cornelia.

"I wasn't seriously considering that, C!" replied Taranee.

"Hair? I hadn't even thought of that!" said Irma. "Maybe for Team Lightning I can get a streak in my hair..."

"Oh please, Irma!" said the imperious Cornelia. "Only two things have streaks in their hair, and one of them's a skunk!"

"Are you saying Rogue of the X-Men is a skunk?" retorted Irma.

"Rogue what?" said Cornelia.

"What about Will?" offered the naive Hay Lin. "What team would she be?"

And with that, the tension returned. So thick, you could etc. etc. Cornelia, Taranee and even Irma exchanged furtive glances, while Hay Lin appeared puzzled. Will was speechless at the thought of what she was seeing before her, then silent with quiet contemplation of what it all meant. That her friends were nervous around her.

"Um, well..." said Taranee, thinking fast. "That's a silly question, Hay! Will is all of the elemental powers together! It doesn't lend itself to combining with just one! It doesn't make sense! I mean, uh, what do you call earth and lightning? Or water and electricity?"

"Energy drink? Ah, lots of energy drink?" quipped Irma.

Irma's humor defused the situation, and they all let off nervous laughter.

"Besides", Taranee continued, "She's on the best team of all! The Guardians!"

Everyone's spirits brightened at that _aw_ moment.

"Thanks, guys!" said Will.

"No, thank you, Will! You're a great leader! Without you, we'd be nothing!" said, Cornelia, without a hint of sarcasm.

"Literally!" added Irma, sarcasm intended and included.

"Hear hear!" joined in Hay Lin.

Just when things were going so right, you just knew they had to turn the other way.

"Guys, do you hear that...buzzing?" asked Will.

"I don't...yeah, there is something there." commented Cornelia.

"Maybe it's electrical?" offered Irma.

"Will, maybe you can check that?" said Taranee.

"Already on it!" chimed Will, turning to her pocket calculator. "Sammy, can you ask the other electrical appliances here if they're causing that buzz? It'd look too odd if I asked the clock if it was buzzing! Oh, and check the overhead wires, too!"

"Sure thing, Will!" said the energetic little calculating device. "Hey! Clock! Yeah you! What's with the buzz?"

"Eeep!" cried Hay Lin in embarrassment. "I'm glad we're the only ones who can hear him!"

Soon, the Guardians have their answer. It's not the one they wanted to hear.

"Sorry, Will!" said the little calculator. "Your theory doesn't compute. Whatever that buzz is, it's not electrical!"

"Thanks, Sammy!" sighed Will. "But what? Oh no."

Will realizes with a start just what the buzz could be! The same knowledge she was keeping from her friends, thinking she was protecting their queasy constitutions.

The Empress Bug!

"Let's ask the waiter!" offered Hay Lin. "He seemed real nice! Plus, that buzzing is getting real annoying! Waiter!"

"I, I don't think that's such a good idea, Hay Lin!" said a concerned Will Vandom.

"Why?" said Hay Lin.

Will, however, was too late. The waiter was already upon them! He turned towards Hay Lin, opened his mouth...

...and thousands of icky, crawling, flying bugs issued forth!

"Aaiiieeee!" screamed Hay Lin, as the insects swarmed her!

"No!" cried Will. She raised her hands, thinking she should use her lightning power, then realized she would only hurt her non-transformed friend if she did that!

Taranee quickly grabbed Hay Lin, shooing the bugs away with licks of fire.

No one noticed, because at that moment the restaurant went crazy! A few of the servers and even some of the customers turned into zillions of creeping, flitting, hopping bugs! They had been insects in disguise all this time! People were running for their lives!

Will gathered her friends together in the midst of the manic maelstrom to sound the words they all longed to hear - Guardians unite!

Before Will could utter her magic words, however, a swarm of flies and gnats flew into her mouth!

As Will spat the bugs out, her friends hustled her out of harm's way and they all ran out of the restaurant, joining the other fleeing refugees, while the biting, piercing insects sampled their flesh.

Finally clear, with the street empty of innocent bystanders and mere moments before the entomological mass was upon them again, the Guardians transformed!

Irma, the Water Guardian, flowed a tidal wave that drowned the bug army!

"That's it!" announced Irma with a smirk. "No tip for this place!"

"Less comedy, more watery!" barked the Earth-empowered Cornelia, as she ripped up sidewalk and soil to block the insects from exiting the restaurant.

"Watery? Is that a word?" added Irma.

Similarly, Hay Lin used her command over the air to send the creatures scurrying out of control towards her friends, Taranee and Will, who used their powers of fire and electricity, respectively, to fry the little critters! With their abilities, it was easier than shooting fish in a barrel!

Soon, the thousands of micro attackers were no more!

"Um, does anyone know what just happened here?" asked Irma.

"I do." announced Will. "I was going to tell you later, because I didn't want to spoil our meal."

"A little late for that, don'tcha think?" said Irma.

"The Empress Bug is back," said Will, "and I think she's mad. At us."

"Gee, you think?" said the sarcastic Irma.

"But especially Hay Lin!" added Cornelia. "Did you see how they went right after her?"

"The Empress must blame Hay for crashing her party!" said Taranee, referring to how the Empress was defeated the first time they met. "She must have it in for her really bad!"

"And now she can even make her bugs look like people!" said a concerned Hay Lin. "She didn't do that before!"

"The Empress was entirely composed of insects, and she looked like a person." replied Taranee. "So this isn't much of a stretch."

"I'm not so sure, Taranee." said their leader, Will Vandom. "The Queen had new powers, and the Oracle told me the Queen and the Empress worked together to escape! So I think we better be ready for anything!"

"Well," added the level-headed Cornelia, "before we have to worry about another attack, don't you think we should get back into the restaurant and clean it out? Who knows how many more of them are in there?"

"Good point, C!" replied Will. "Guardians, let's..."

Will stopped and looked up. The sky was growing darker and darker by the second.

"Huh?" said a puzzled Irma. "Is there a solar eclipse scheduled that no one told me about?"

"That's no solar eclipse!" yelled Taranee. "Those are insects! Millions of 'em!"

"What?" said the stunned Cornelia. "But I thought they stayed out of the air, because of the birds!"

"If Will's right, and the Empress does have new powers," replied Taranee, "I don't think she'd be worried about any birds! Besides, there's a few facts you should know."

"What's that?" asked Cornelia.

"One - the Empress lorded it over a small realm before. Now she's on Earth. Two - there are more insects, by _weight_, on Earth than all the animals, not just people, combined!"

"Ah, how many more?" asked the curious Irma.

"Oh, let's see, there's about 100 million insects for each person!" snapped Taranee.

"I had to ask!" choked Irma.

"Guys, brace yourselves!" shouted Will, as the swarm came closer. They soon surrounded the Guardians, covering every building, street light and parked car in the area. "We can take them if we just stay together!"

"Are you so sure, Guardians?"

_"That voice!"_ Will thought. _"But it wasn't a voice at all!"_

Will peered over to where the voice seemed to be coming from, and in the middle of a mass of insects perched on a sign, an image of the Empress' face appeared!

"You may have defeated me before, but now your world is mine!"

And the voice wasn't really a voice, but it was familiar. Where had she heard it? And then it hits Will...Chirping crickets, whose call is produced when they rub their wings together!

So the Empress had somehow gotten all of these insects to work together just to provide her with a voice! How can they...but no, Will has to put that out of her mind! They have to do something! She has to do something!

So Will lets loose with an electric blast aimed right at the face of the Empress!

However, the insects quickly scatter. The face of the Empress fades, then reappears almost immediately in another location!

"Is that the best you can do?" smirked the Empress.

Hay Lin is the first to take up the Empress' challenge.

"We defeated you before!" announced Hay Lin. "And we'll do it again!"

Hay Lin throws a veritable tornado at the Empress and her millions of insect minions!

The swirling column of air appears to scatter them...at first. Then the flying critters somehow matched speed and 'rode' the tornado! 'Round and 'round they went, this huge, vibrating wall of black bugs, until, amazingly enough, all of the air-borne insects, their wings in synch, shifted in reverse and dissipated the tornado!

"Huh??" cried Hay Lin, as she and the other Guardians gaped in astonishment. "How did she do that?"

"As I have dominion of the creatures of this world," stated the Empress, her words provided by the exertion of thousands of bugs, "so too do I have dominion over those places in which they live! The skies of this world are mine! You...are mine!"

Just then, Hay Lin grasped her stomach and keeled over.

"Hay Lin!" shouted Will, who rushed toward her friend.

Before Will can ask what's wrong, Hay Lin turns to her fellow Guardian and insects crawl out of her mouth!

Will jumps back! Hay Lin's eyes roll up into her head, then, rising on a column of bug-laden air, she floats over to and joins the Empress.

And so Hay Lin, the first to take the challenge of the Empress, is the first to fall.

"No! Hay Lin! Don't!" shouted Taranee. The other Guardians are speechless.

And then Cornelia steps forward.

"Enough of this!" rings Cornelia. "Time to bury you!"

And so the Guardian of the Earth pulls the land up, hoping to place the Empress and her insect army forever under it.

However...

The ground is full of insects! They rise up out of the soil and the earth, a great big crawling mass of many-legged creatures, and instantly cover Cornelia from head to toe!

"As the denizens of the world below are mine, so too are all those who come from it!" boasted the Empress.

As the bug-covered Cornelia struggled and whimpered, for a second, just one quick second, the Guardians stood in mute shock and horror, scarcely believing their eyes! Could they lose another, so quickly?

Then Irma jumped into the fray!

She blasted water at Cornelia's insect-draped form, freeing her from her buggy bondage!

But Cornelia was not, as they say, 'home'. Her glassy eyes betrayed her new allegiance.

Not that Irma had time to notice. As soon as she started spraying water, waterbugs of all sizes and types flowed out of the H2O and attacked her!

"And as the inhabitants of the deep are mine to command, so too are all those nourished by the liquid of life!" roared the Empress.

Thus the mind-controlled Cornelia and Irma join the Empress' insectoid fighting force.

And so the Earth and Water Guardians become the second and third to fall to the new-found might of the Empress!

Shocked, Will and Taranee pleaded with their friends to return to them even as they fought for their lives against the Empress' buggy warriors!

Will zapped lightning at the Empress and her zillions of bugs!

Taranee threw fireball after fireball at them!

And while they did drive the insects away from them, their friends remained unresponsive.

And then they approached. Cornelia, Irma and Hay Lin raised their hands to summon their power.

Standing back to back in a standard defensive position, Taranee was the first to see the coming attack from their subjugated friends.

Thinking quickly, and while still fending off a veritable wall of six-legged pests, Taranee set up a barrier of fire that turned Irma's water into steam, Cornelia's earth into slag and Hay Lin's cyclone into an updraft!

Trapped in an untenable situation, with little chance of success, they did what anyone would do in similar circumstances (not that you or I would ever face anything like this, _ever_, but if we did...). They ran for help!

Not that they had any idea who could help in a situation like this!

No one on Earth, that's for sure!

But if they folded to Meridian or Candracar, they would be leaving Heatherfield at the mercy of the Empress and her nigh-unstoppable army! Not to mention leaving their friends in the lurch!

While running, though most had sought the safety of the indoors, they spied some still on the street.

Two cops were firing their weapons at the coming plague of locusts and similar beasties.

To no avail, of course. Though a few insects were downed in this manner, the vast, vast majority kept on coming!

"What are you doing?" yelled Will.

Leaping into the fray, Will managed to push the law enforcers to the ground as the horde bore down on them!

Then, with the eyes of the two police officers averted, Will let loose with a blast of electricity that deterred further attacks from the swarm.

"Get inside!" Will ordered. "It's not safe out here!"

Dumbfounded, the cops quickly complied.

Pausing to catch their breath, Will and Taranee compared notes.

"I, I don't understand!" wheezed Will. "How is she doing this?

"You said it yourself, Will!" gasped Taranee. "Somehow, she amped her powers when she got together with the Queen!"

"There has to be more to it than that!" stated Will, emphatically.

"It could have been worse." suggested Taranee. "They could have been taken over by spiders!"

"This is no time for jokes, Taranee!" admonished Will.

"Sorry, Will. But...I don't know what else to do." said the despondent Fire Guardian.

"No! There has to be something!" said a defiant Will Vandom. "Something we're missing!"

"Hold on, I do remember something odd!" replied Taranee. "Irma said she thought she saw a fly in her soup! So maybe the soup contained special mind-control bugs that they ate and...hlkk! Oh no."

"What?" cried Will. "Taranee?"

Taranee's eyes rolled away from her friend and her body went limp.

"No!" begged Will. "Wake up! You can't...!"

Then Will noticed she was surrounded yet again.

The Empress, the full form of the Empress this time, not just her face, flanked by her (former? Oh, please, no!) friends - Irma, Hay Lin and Cornelia - and millions of the Empress' special pals.

They had snuck up on them so silently! How could so many bugs be so quiet, anyway? Then Will realized - if the Empress can command so many insects to create a voice for her, she can silence them as well.

Then, coming from Taranee, Will detects the distinct smell of burnt bug.

Hard-shelled insects emerged from Taranee's oral cavity, crispy yet still alive.

Then Taranee jerked upright, and moved away from Will.

Desperate to not lose another of her friends, Will grasped Taranee's arm.

But Taranee's instinctive defenses kicked in, and made her arm so hot Will had to let go.

Will could only look on helplessly as Taranee took her place with the other will-sapped Guardians.

_"All my friends are gone!"_ realized Will. _"Taken over, possessed by that demoness bug!"_

_"What do I do now?"_ Will thought. _"They're blocking my path to the Empress! If I use my lightning, even if that could work, my friends would take the brunt of it! If I take the elemental powers away from the Guardians, they would still stand between me and the Empress. Or, even worse, the Empress might order her bugs to..to..No! It can't end this way! Have I...have we...finally lost?"_

And while all this ran through Will's head, the Empress ranted.

"As I am of the air, thence follows the Air Guardian!

As I am of the earth, so do I control the Earth Guardian!

As I am of the water, so does the Water Guardian fall under my spell!

And while I am not of the flame, we have long ago lived to learn with it! And so succumbs the Fire Guardian!

The world, and all in it, are now mine! Your friends are all mine! So what will you do, Guardian? What will you do?" croaked the insectoid empress, her glee all the more chilling as it was voiced by thousands of insect body parts.

"I…" said Will, her head bowed as if in defeat, her hand firmly gripping the Heart of Candracar as if praying for a miracle. "Nothing."

And whether this last word was a statement of intent or a command for action, what happened next is not up for debate.

The world stopped for a moment. Took a break. From life. And the living.

Will and the mind-controlled Guardians froze. No electricity leapt from Will's hands. No vines issued from the earth under Cornelia's direction. No fire hungrily lapped at the atmosphere from Taranee's fingers. No air swirled around Hay Lin's body. And no water flowed from Irma at all. Not even a tear.

And the Empress, who was tuned into life all over the world, took it particularly hard.

"AIIIEEEEE! NO! This can't be happ-!"

And then she was gone.

Vanished.

Without her mental domination, the various crawlers and fliers gathered up by the Empress soon dispersed back into the environment.

As the girls recovered, slowly gathering their wits and regaining movement, the 'wound', the feeling that they had lost all contact with life, the world, and that 'special connection' they had with the elemental forces of nature, was still fresh.

It was Cornelia (no surprise) who voiced what they were all thinking.

"Will?" asked a cautious, trembling Cornelia. "What, what did you do?"

"I…" began Will, who stood motionless and stared at her hands as the electricity crept back into her body.

"I don't know."

Epilogue: Within the Heart of Candracar, the black spots that appeared after the Guardians' last adventure grew and joined together until, if one squinted their eyes and looked very, very closely, one may see a thin black line in the center of the Heart.

Maybe.

_Next:_

_The Guardians go to the one place their powers can't help them!_

_It's a survivor like you've never seen - Survivor: OOTW (Out Of This World)_

_as the Worm turns!_

_Catch it!_

Notes

This story occurs directly after The Queen Of Infinity.

The Empress of W.I.T.C.H. Adventures The Cruel Empress was a beetle that had the power to command all kinds of insects. Actually, even more than insects, as she also had control over spiders and scorpions! Plus, not only was her 'human form' comprised of bugs, but she also made a giant spider that was composed of many thousands of smaller spiders.

If the Empress can mentally control insects, and even arachnids (spiders and scorpions), how much harder would it be to control people? Especially if they already housed a few 'subjects' of the Empress?

In _The Cruel Empress_, Will's lightning had no effect. That made no sense, and I chalk it up to the fact that it was Hay Lin's spotlight, so she had to be the one to defeat the Empress. So I 'fix' things by having Will's electricity zap the bugs, while Hay Lin is made target number one by the Empress. The Empress recognizes the danger posed by Will, so she goes after Will second.

I made up the way they defeated Nerissa. But it is an elegant solution. As this story is a melding of the Adventure books and the TV show, I'm leaving some room for me to get creative. This melding is only possible because the W.I.T.C.H. Adventure books seem to exist in a universe all their own. While they do follow the comic book 'standard' in that only Hay Lin can fly and Yan Lin is a member of the Council (which I also adhere to), other than that there are no references to the comic book continuity, which means I can interpret events as I see fit.

While with The Queen of Infinity I tried for more of a fast-paced, action-packed 'Guardians Adventure' feel (with the emphasis on them working together), albeit with my own original touches, with this story I change it up a bit. The beginning's full of dialogue and character interaction, then I follow up with hard and heavy action (with a bit o' horror for added spice!). Future tales will test the limits of the Guardians concept and their powers, before I bring things back down to earth.

I give all the villains a bit of a 'makeover'. Both the Queen and the Empress had slightly different powers (the result of learning new tricks and collaborating with each other while imprisoned). How will my versions of The Worm and Danny Salamander be changed (or similar to previous versions)? Wait and see.

Will couldn't do the crystalline transformation thing on the Empress that she used on the Queen. That was a one-shot deal, due to the circumstances involved. Will was super-charged with Guardian energy at the time, and the Queen was an energy-user. She bent energy around. So Will used her extra energy to change the Queen's energy into a latticework, a crystal, that constrained and contained the Queen's energy. Will used the Queen's energy to construct her own prison (Similar to the way Elyon was imprisoned in a crystal, the Heart of Meridian, but obviously a little different in that the Queen's body was changed, too). That method wouldn't work on the Empress, who, while telepathic, is still an insect and not a magical energy user.

There are no boys in this story, but then, there weren't any in the original W.I.T.C.H. Adventures, either.

I'm not sure if Cornelia is a vegetarian, but it fits her character (and gives her something to complain about!) I didn't want her to say she's on a diet, because too many young women obsess about that already.

I guess the moral of the story is, if you dine at the Bum Steer restaurant, don't have the soup!


End file.
